Archer 100
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Advanced Optical Overlay Metrology THE ARCHER 100™ OVERLAY CONTROL SYSTEM, based on the industry proven Archer™ platform, meets stringent performance and cost of ownership (CoO) requirements for 45nm design rules and below. Fully redesigned optics, tighter stage tolerances, new imaging and illumination modes, shorter MAM time, enhanced algorithms and built-in diagnostics combine to deliver the high levels of process robustness and productivity needed to address increasingly tighter overlay error budgets. Leveraging KLA-Tencor’s patented AIM™ technology and Archer Analyzer™ software, the Archer 100 enables in-chip metrology and in-field analysis for advance dispositioning and higher-order overlay control. A smart new automatic recipe optimization (ARO) sequence improves ease of use and tool utilization, enabling relatively unskilled operators to quickly create high quality recipes offline. PRODUCT DESCRIPTION Satisfies Tighter Overlay Budgets The Archer 100 is a fully extendible optical overlay metrology system designed to keep pace with increasingly challenging lithography control needs. Tighter specifications of the completely redesigned optics system significantly reduce lens aberrations, enabling >30% improvement in total measurement uncertainty (TMU) and site-by-site matching. The new XYZ stage positioning system offers tighter stage tolerances, and the imaging system features a new camera with high signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), further ensuring measurement reliability and repeatability. Improves Process Robustness The redesigned wafer alignment system delivers sharper optical resolution and contrast. A new illumination ..system with extended spectrum and narrow bandwidth capabilities improves the measurement signal of low contrast and asymmetric layers, making the Archer 100 suitable for challenging high-volume manufacturing (HVM) applications such as amorphous carbon layer (aCL) measurements in memory production. Improved low-contrast layer measurements enable higher accuracy and robustness for better stepper matching and lithography process control. Enables Higher-Order Overlay Control Using Smaller AIM Targets AIM technology, with its periodic imaging-based grating targets, enables in-chip metrology and in-field modeling required for achieving improved in-die analysis. This powerful capability helps in advance dispositioning and process control, providing a clearer understanding of unmodeled errors and better implementation of dense inter-field and intra-field sample plans. Archer 100 takes the field-proven AIM technology to the next level, where the denser structure of enhanced, smaller micro-grating (µAIM™) targets increases information content with reduced residuals for higher process robustness. Greatly Simplifies Ease of Use The ARO feature is a new productivityboosting recipe training sequence that allows less experienced operators to automatically create optimal recipes offline. Without impacting tool operation, ARO quickly yields recipes with the best possible performance and higher success rates. This eliminates the need for operator intervention and any chance of human errors, ultimately freeing up valuable engineering resources in the fab. Optimizes Recipe Management The integrated Recipe Database Manager (RDM+) software gives users offline access to a centralized database to leverage previously proven recipe components. This reduces setup time, and increases reliability and traceability of measurement recipes. The improved Waferless, Imageless, and Automation Recipe Creation (ARC) modes enable full automation of the recipe creation process across all KLA-Tencor overlay metrology systems. To ensure recipe quality, RDM+ offers powerful new options such as Recipe Compare and Recipe Validation for HVM recipe management and control. Improves Overall Production CoO The Archer 100 increases throughput to over 80 wafers per hour (production sampling) and delivers 20% faster move-acquire-measure (MAM) time over existing tools. This enables rapid intra-field measurement and increased sampling rates, key requirements for improving yield in immersion lithography. Comprehensive tool diagnostics minimize downtime risk, while the new optics design accelerates tool installation time. Since offline recipe creation also saves tool time, these factors – along with options such as the triple load port – enhance tool utilization by more than 20% over the previous generation. The Archer 100 platform is designed to allow a smooth upgrade path to support future technologies, such as double-patterning lithography (DPL) at 32nm. Provides Enhanced Analysis Capabilities Archer Analyzer is a fully automated, real-time overlay analysis software option that incorporates advanced algorithms and data filters to analyze Archer 100 results ontool. This capability helps to determine if a given wafer lot has met predetermined parameters, and provides users with critical litho cell corrections. Wafer lot dispositioning results and stepper correction data helps lithographers to reduce unnecessary rework and quickly address variations in lithography tool performance, minimizing cycle time and yield loss. Archer Analyzer uses the same factory automation interface as all Archer family systems, enabling easy integration into a 300mm fab network. Enables ‘On Product’ Monitoring of Focus/Exposure The MPX™ Focus/Exposure Line Monitor provides an innovative methodology to monitor photo excursions of focus and exposure on production wafers. As an option on the Archer 100, MPX improves overlay tool CoO as a single solution that monitors all stepper controls while providing high throughput with rapid optical measurements. MPX capitalizes on a unique capability to separate exposure from focus for accurate process monitoring while providing real-time focus and exposure metrology. Comprehensive Process Control The Archer 100 is fully integrated with KLA-Tencor’s leading yield management software products, including Archer Analyzer stepper analysis, RDM+ recipe data management, and iSupport™ remote assistance and tool maintenance, to provide comprehensive optical overlay metrology process control. All software components have been enhanced in several key areas, including measurement and focus algorithms, recipe setup automation, runtime automation, and analysis. The accelerated production ramp of the Archer 100 allows metrology and lithography engineers to more effectively manage tightening overlay error budgets, which have a direct impact on device performance, lithography performance and overall yield.